By Gbenga Adedayo

Nigeria’s chances of becoming a big player in gold production brightened over the weekend with commencement of $98 dollar gold development in 2021.

This is coming as Nigeria’s first industrial gold project is on course to enter production next year, and its success will be crucial for boosting mining in Africa’s biggest oil producer, the country’s mines minister said.

Thor Explorations Ltd. is spending $98 million to develop the project, which will have an annual average output of 80,000 ounces. The Canada-based company’s Segilola mine in the southwest should yield gold by the end of the first quarter of 2021, Minister of Mines and Steel Development Olamilekan Adegbite told reporters in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, on Friday.

The West African nation has sizable untapped deposits of metals including iron ore, gold, zinc and lead, but almost all extraction is done on a small-scale or manual basis. The government wants to increase mining’s contribution to gross domestic product to 3% by 2025, from less than 0.1% currently.

Thor is “the proverbial company that dares to jump in the shark-infested water and see whether it survives,” Adegbite said. Progress at Segilola will be key to attracting other mining companies to Nigeria, which offers incentives including tax holidays and customs waivers on imported equipment, he said.

Successive administrations have pledged to grow mining’s role in the economy since Nigeria restored multi-party democracy in 1999. Legislation to expand the sector was passed more than a decade ago.

Lagos-based Africa Finance Corp. is backing Thor through a $86 million debt-equity financing package.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/nigeria-begins-gold-production-for-export-in-2021/

By Emeka Nze

The Nigerian Stock Exchange will start clearing and settlement of exchange-traded derivative products in the second quarter of next year as it seeks to deepen the financial market of Africa’s biggest crude producer.

The Lagos-based bourse has obtained approval in principle from the Securities and Exchange Commission to operate NG Clearing Ltd., a central counterparty clearing house, it said in an emailed response to questions on Tuesday. The company will settle trade and counterparty risks for products including “index futures, single stock futures, FX futures, fixed income and commodities futures,” it said.

The market regulator said last year it will register a central clearing house to take on credit risks between parties in derivatives trading and also to help clear and settle deals. The bourse is introducing futures trading to enable investors to hedge risks and boost investments in the market that’s gradually recovering from a slowdown triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and a slump in oil prices.

The 153-member stock exchange is also looking to set up a settlement guarantee fund that it expects to grow rapidly.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/nigeria-begins-central-trade-clearing-house-in-2021/

By Gbenga Adedayo

A Russian journalist died on Friday after setting herself on fire in front of the local branch of the interior ministry in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, a day after her apartment was searched by police, her news outlet said.

Prior to her self-immolation, Irina Slavina wrote on her Facebook page: “I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death.”

Slavina worked as editor-in-chief at Koza Press, a small local news outlet that advertised itself as having “no censorship, no orders ‘from above'”.

A day before her death, she wrote on Facebook that police officers and investigators had searched her apartment, writing that they were looking for “brochures, leaflets and accounts” from the Open Russia opposition group, which is financed by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

She said they seized notebooks, her laptop and other electronics, as well as her daughter’s laptop and her husband’s mobile phone.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was opening a preliminary investigation after a woman self-immolated in Nizhny Novgorod, a city of 1.3 million located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow. It did not name Slavina in its statement.

Members of Russia’s opposition pointed to the pressure Slavina had been under from the authorities.

“Over the past years security officials have subjected her to endless persecution because of her opposition (activities),” opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov wrote on Instagram.

“What a nightmare,” Ilya Yashin, another Kremlin critic, wrote on Twitter. “All of these cases of police amusing themselves, these shows of men in masks – these are not games. The government is truly breaking people psychologically.”

-Reuters

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/how-russian-female-journalist-committed-suicide/

Nigeria is considering selling its shares in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which dominates Africa’s biggest petroleum industry and has been central to corruption scandals that have wracked the West African nation since crude was discovered there in the 1950s.

Legislation two decades in the making is working its way through parliament that would make the NNPC independent of government and cut its access to state funding. The move comes after Saudi Arabia in December sold 1.5% of its national oil company, creating a behemoth valued at nearly $2 trillion that vies with Apple Inc. for the title of the world’s most valuable company.

While Nigeria’s oil champion is dwarfed by Saudi Arabian Oil Co., it’s a giant at home, controlling an industry that generates about half of state revenue and 90% of export earnings. Tightly controlled by the Nigerian government since it was established in 1977, the NNPC has become notorious as a tool for political patronage, with opaque transactions helping fuel graft.

The company operates joint ventures with international energy companies that produce most of the nation’s crude and runs units that supply fuel to its more than 200 million people. It also owns leases to offshore blocks that contain two-thirds of Nigeria’s crude reserves.

Opening the Books

The National Petroleum Investment Management Services division, the NNPC’s biggest income generator, reported revenue of 5.04 trillion naira ($13 billion) in 2018 and profit of 1.01 trillion naira, according to accounts published in June that were the first in its 43-year history. Draft legislation presented to parliament on Sept. 29 seeks to make it “a commercially oriented and profit driven national petroleum company.”

The bill is seen as a landmark for the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, who’s in a strong position after his 2019 election victory packed parliament with his allies.

Previous efforts to reform the company over the past two decades have stalled, including a proposed initial public offering in 2018. The plans have been revived after a plunge in crude prices led to a 60% slump in government revenue and the worst economic contraction in at least a decade.

The government in April borrowed $3.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund, the first from the Washington-based lender in its history. It’s since done away with costly petroleum and power subsidies that Buhari once defended as the state looks to free up revenue to run the cash-strapped government.

Reformist Agenda

The new law falls short of a 2012 version that foresaw privatizing the company, and it omits a target date for selling shares or specifics on how much could be sold. But its submission to lawmakers demonstrates that the reformist camp in Buhari’s government is making progress with its agenda.

“This is a bill that comes with the authority of the presidency,” said Antony Goldman, founder and chief executive officer of Promedia Consulting, a political risk consultancy. It replaces an “outdated set of laws, layered one on top of each other since the 1950s, that are no longer fit for purpose,” he said.

According to the draft legislation, the NNPC would be replaced by a limited-liability company known as the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. that operates on a commercial basis. The state’s shareholding in the new entity would be held by the Finance Ministry. The bill also provides for an annual audit of the new oil company by an independent firm.

The government would have to approve any plans to privatize the company, according to the bill. A sale or transfer of shares would be at a “fair market value and subject to an open, transparent and competitive bidding process.”

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/government-plans-sale-of-nnpc-for-improved-efficiency/

By Emeka Nze

Africans may be twice as likely to experience Covid-19 without any illness, compared with people in the rest of the world, according to preliminary analysis by the African branch of the World Health Organization.

The results from several blood-sample studies in Africa could help to explain the low death rate that has confounded the early predictions of devastation on the continent.

More than 80 per cent of Africans who were infected with the virus were asymptomatic, the preliminary analysis found, based on testing in several African countries. This compares with an estimated 40 per cent to 50 per cent who were asymptomatic in the rest of the world.

“This is reinforced by the fact that we have not seen health systems overwhelmed by very large numbers of cases, and we’re also not seeing evidence of excess mortality due to Covid-19,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, in a media briefing on Thursday.

Africa, with a population of 1.2 billion, has recorded about 1.4 million cases and fewer than 35,000 deaths from the virus – far lower, proportionally, than other regions of the world. The United States, with slightly more than a quarter of Africa’s population, has recorded 7.1 million cases and more than 206,000 deaths.

Some of the difference is explained by lower testing rates in Africa, where only 1 per cent of the population has been tested for the virus. But this fails to explain all of the difference. “The missed Covid-19 cases are largely because they are asymptomatic,” the WHO Africa branch said in a statement. “In addition, there is no evidence of miscalculation of death figures, which are more difficult to miss statistically.”

The case fatality rate in Africa has been 2.4 per cent so far, significantly lower than the rate in most European and North American countries.

Even when estimates include thousands of excess deaths, likely to be caused by Covid-19 but not officially recorded as such, the death rate in Africa has been lower than many experts had expected. And the pandemic is now diminishing here: The number of new African cases has been dropping for the past two months.

At the WHO briefing, experts cited several possible factors to explain the lower rates of death and illness in Africa, although they emphasized that more study is needed.

The most widely accepted factor is Africa’s youthful population. Only about 3 per cent of Africans are over the age of 65, the age group in which illness and death from the coronavirus are most common. (By comparison, about 18 per cent of Canada’s population is over the age of 65.)

More than 90 per cent of African coronavirus cases have occurred among people under the age of 60, who are better able to shrug off the virus. Death rates have been higher in Algeria and South Africa where a larger percentage of the population is over the age of 65, Dr. Moeti said.

Another factor could be Africa’s lower population density and the fact that many people live in rural areas, spending more time outdoors, analysts say. There is growing evidence that outdoor spaces, because of their greater ventilation, tend to reduce exposure to the virus, making it less dangerous.

“It doesn’t transmit very well outdoors, and Africa has a significant population that is rural and spends a lot of time outdoors,” Francisca Mutapi, professor of global health infection and immunity at the University of Edinburgh, said at the Africa WHO briefing.

Sam Agatre Okuonzi, a Ugandan health researcher and hospital administrator, told the briefing that he agreed that Africa’s risk of coronavirus infection may have been reduced by its larger rural population.

A third factor was the imposition of early strict lockdowns in many African countries, at a time when case numbers were relatively small. This postponed the worst of the pandemic, allowing hospitals and health workers to be better prepared with the latest treatment methods.

A study this month by South Africa’s biggest medical insurance company, Discovery Health, concluded that the lockdown in South Africa will have averted 16,000 deaths by the end of the year. The lockdown, now largely lifted, was one of the strictest in the world, contributing to a sharp economic decline this year.

“Governments took early, quite drastic action through the lockdowns, at great cost to their economies clearly, and this has bought us some time,” Dr. Moeti said.

“It needs to be acknowledged because it made a difference. And it made a difference at a high cost. They were tough, courageous, very costly. We need to sustain this, so that the cost is justified.”

A fourth factor, she said, was Africa’s relatively poor road network and access to international flights, which slowed the arrival of the virus and its transmission to rural areas.

“Africa is less internationally connected than other regions,” Dr. Moeti said. “So we had some protection when the virus first arrived.”

-Observer

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/who-identifies-4-reasons-africans-are-experiencing-less-covid-19-death/

By Emeka Nze

The United States has staged a simulated island assault exercise featuring a red silhouette of China on air personnel’s uniforms, in what Chinese state media described as a provocative gesture.

The drill, to be completed on Tuesday, was being conducted in California, but triggered warnings from Chinese state media that China would fight back if the US attacked it in the South China Sea.

US-based Air Force magazine reported that the training by the US veteran drone fleet, which began on September 3, suggested that the US Air Force was focusing more on the Pacific region.

Patches on uniforms made for the exercise featured an MQ-9 Reaper drone superimposed over a red silhouette of China, the report said.

In the drill, Exercise Agile Reaper, three MQ-9s partnered with the US Navy’s Third Fleet, which deployed carrier strike groups, submarines and other vessels and aircraft to the eastern Pacific, along with transport aircraft C-130s, and special warfare and Marine Corps personnel.

The reapers performed air strikes during a mock amphibious assault on San Clemente Island off the Californian coast.

U.S. personnel staged a mock amphibious assault during this month’s drills. South China Morning Post

Patches on uniforms made for the exercise showed a drone superimposed over a red silhouette of China. South China Morning Post

“It’s a demonstration of our capability to rapidly move the MQ-9 anywhere in the world, to unfamiliar locations, and then get out and show the operational reach capabilities of the MQ-9,” US 29th Attack Squadron Commander Lieutenant Colonel Brian Davis told the magazine.

MQ-9 Reapers have been used in wars in the Middle East and Africa for two decades, but the US Air Force has considered replacing them over fears that their stealth, electronic protection and speed capabilities were falling behind those of more advanced drones produced by China and Russia, according to Air Force.

Despite the training exercise taking place far from the Chinese coast, China’s state media suggested that the drones could be deployed to attack Chinese-built facilities in the South China Sea.

“Washington is stepping up preparations for war against China, and this type of drone that has participated in murders and other attacks around the world will also play a role in it,” an editorial by nationalistic tabloid Global Times said on Monday. “This is the strategic signal sent from the exercise.

“This is to stir hostilities between the two countries, and is also a blackmail to China. Using such an armband with a Chinese map will stimulate people’s imagination and create a picture of China and the United States going to war.”

-Koreatimes

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/politics/watch-it-usa-and-china-may-be-preparing-for-war/

By Gbenga Adedayo

China may have resolved to prevent takeover of TikTok by the United States of America in order to safeguard the interests of its enterprises.

Experts said on Sunday that China will resolutely take actions to prevent TikTok and its technologies from falling into the US’ hands to protect its national security and the interests of its enterprises, as hearing continues as of press time in the US over whether the US government’s TikTok ban will be halted.

The popular video-sharing app will be removed from the Apple and Google app stores from 11:59 pm Sunday (US time) unless federal judge Carl Nichols, who was chairing an emergency court hearing, decides to halt the ban.

The court’s ruling on Sunday won’t actually make a significant difference as the Trump administration will undoubtedly continue its push for a full ban of TikTok in the US, experts said.

US President Donald Trump initially signed an executive order imposing a November 12 deadline for ByteDance to sell or “spin off” TikTok’s operations in the US on national security grounds.

After a tentative deal was revealed between ByteDance and US multinational tech firm Oracle forming a business partnership, the US Justice Department moved to add pressure on the Chinese firm by claiming on Friday that ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is “a mouthpiece” of the Communist Party of China and the firm’s close relationship with Chinese authorities endangers American citizens’ security.

All of the capricious actions taken by the Trump administration against TikTok aim to contain China and the country’s world-class companies, experts said, stressing that China will resolutely fight back to safeguard the interests of its enterprises while preventing the US’ hegemonic mind-set.

Dangerous precedent

Whatever the final result for the TikTok’s US business, the US’ misdeeds have set a dangerous precedent for other countries, said Liu Dingding, a veteran industry analyst and close follower of the TikTok issue.

A tentative deal recently unveiled made US multinational tech firm Oracle a trusted partner and shareholder in a new entity in the US known as TikTok Global, in which the Chinese firm would reportedly maintain majority ownership and won’t transfer its algorithm to US companies.

“If the US-manipulated restructuring of TikTok becomes a template [for future deals], it would mean that world-class companies that have core competitiveness would be like ‘lambs’ that can be wantonly slaughtered by the US government when they enter the US market,” Liu said.

China won’t “bend over” to the US’ aggression, however, because if it did so, other countries might follow the US’ lead and push Chinese firms with the same excuses, and they may even go further than the US did, said Zuo Xiaodong, vice president of the China Information Security Research Institute.

“The Trump administration is so crazy that it considers any Chinese firm that collects user data in normal business operations as a [national security] threat. According to the US’ hegemonic logic, China should have banned a number of US high-tech companies as China heavily purchased from the US for its information industry development over the past years,” Zuo said.

In a move to protect its own interests and security, China in August added algorithms to its export control list for the first time. On September 19, the country also issued provisions for its long-awaited first “unreliable entity list,” aiming to penalize foreign entities and individuals that undermine China’s national interests and Chinese firms’ legitimate rights.

At a time when most countries are concerned about the security of user data, large economies like the US should lead the development of internationally recognized data collection and use standards to benefit the long-term development of the information industry rather than targeting certain powerful companies, Zuo said.

Enlarging woes

From France’s Alstom and Japan’s Toshiba to China’s ZTE, Huawei and TikTok and WeChat, foreign enterprises have been bullied by the US time and time again.

Reuters reported that the US has imposed fresh restrictions on exports to China’s biggest chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), after concluding there is an “unacceptable risk” that the equipment supplied to the firm could be used for military purposes, citing a letter from the US Commerce Department dated Friday.

Although the US Department of Commerce has not yet publicly posted the document, analysts said the reported move is highly possible and could be “catastrophic,” as it not only deals a heavy blow to the Chinese chipmaker, but will also strangle the “root and base” of the country’s high-tech sector.

In a statement sent to the Global Times on Saturday, SMIC said that it has not received any official notification about potential US sanctions, reiterating that SMIC only provides products and services for civilian and commercial end-users. “SMIC has no relationship with the Chinese military and does not manufacture products for military users,” reads the statement.

If SMIC is restricted as reported, most of its business operations will be frozen as the company cooperates with US partners across its entire industrial chain. For example, SMIC buys chips for terminals from Qualcomm, said analysts.

“The US ‘chip cut’ on Huawei has already acted as a ‘wake-up’ call to China’s high-tech sector, and the move on SMIC will only accelerate the company’s efforts to become self-reliant,” said Jiang Junmu, chief writer at Chinese telecom industry news website c114.com.cn on Sunday.

The whole country — from the policymakers to industry players — may now need to find an effective way to grow a completely self-reliant chip industrial chain, even if it means huge losses in the short term, according to experts.

Chinese firms should ignore the “tricks” Trump will most likely play ahead of the US presidential election, Liu said, noting that they should maintain their own pace and invest in homegrown technology to cope with the US’ maximum crackdown.

-Global Times

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/china-to-resist-us-from-taking-over-tiktok/

By Timothy Oyomare

The planned reduction of visa duration for students pursuing degrees in the US from four to two years has been linked to growing security concerns.

According to the new United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposal, students from countries on the State Sponsor of Terrorism List (Iran, Syria, Sudan and Northern Korea) and citizens of countries with over 10 per cent overstay rate will be limited to the two-year student visa.

The move which is contained in the proposals will also see students from a majority of African countries barred from getting student visas longer than two years.

This means that the students will be unable to pursue education in American universities where degrees and other certifications take about four years of study.

“If DHS’s new proposed rule goes through, international students from countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Vietnam, and the Philippines would be effectively banned from getting four-year degrees in the US,” US Immigration lawyer Aaron Reinchlin-Melnick, who is a Policy Analyst at the American Immigration Council, warns.

“Most of those countries would be subject to restrictions because of the “10 per cent visa overstay” threshold,” Mr Reinchlin-Melnick tweeted.

The majority of the affected countries are in Africa and others in war-torn countries in Asia. The list seems, however, to avoid countries dominated by white people, especially in Europe.

Students who will be affected by the new rules include those from Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

Other than the East Africans, students from countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Zambia are affected.

Others are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Guyana, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Syria, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

Although the students would be able to ask DHS for an extension of their visas past two years, those extensions will not be guaranteed.

In its explanation, the Department says that its intention is to fix a major problem on students overstaying their welcome in the US.

But an analysis of the Department of Homeland Security points that only 32,023 people were suspected of overstaying a student /exchange visa last year.

Overstayed

Whereas the Trump government argues that the rule to restrict some countries is based on the percentage of students who overstayed, countries with the highest number of overstays like China, India, Brazil and Canada are not included in the punitive list.

A downward trend is also developing as fewer students from other countries are enrolling in US colleges and universities, according to a study published recently by a State Department bureau and Institute of International Education, a New York-based NGO.

Last year’s 0.9 per cent drop in new enrolments of international students continued since the start of the Trump administration in 2017.

A spate of gun violence in a number of States especially targeting black population is also reported to have a number of parents reconsider sending their children to the US.

Kenya ranks third among sub-Saharan countries and the first in East Africa and followed by Ethiopia in the number of students attending US colleges or universities.

Nigeria leads the pack with a total of 13,423 students last year, an increase of nearly six per cent from the 2017-18 academic year followed by Ghana.

In July, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that students on non-immigrant F-1 and M-1 visas who attend universities that operate entirely online amid the Covid-19 pandemic may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States. It meant students under the category were required to return home.

-Daily Nation

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/politics/real-reason-us-is-limiting-student-visa-to-two-years/

By Emeka Nze

The World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed rules for testing of African herbal remedies to fight Covid-19.

Sound science would be the sole basis for safe and effective traditional therapies to be adopted, it said. Any traditional remedies that are judged effective could be fast-tracked for large-scale manufacturing.

Madagascar’s leader has been promoting an untested product he says can cure the disease despite the WHO warning against using untested remedies. The WHO said the new rules were aimed at helping and empowering scientists in Africa to conduct proper clinical trials.

The move comes as the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide passes 30 million, with reported global deaths standing at more than 957,000. In Africa there have been more than 1.3 million cases and less than 33,000 reported deaths.

Around 140 potential vaccines for Covid-19 are being developed around the world, with dozens already being tested on people in clinical trials.

Alongside these efforts, the green light has now been given for phase three clinical trials using African traditional medicines.

A panel of experts, set up by the WHO, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the African Union Commission for Social Affairs, has agreed on the protocols. Phase three trials usually test the safety and efficacy of a drug on larger groups of participants.

“The adoption of the technical documents will ensure that universally acceptable clinical evidence of the efficacy of herbal medicines for the treatment of Covid-19 is generated without compromising the safety of participants,” said Prof Motlalepula Gilbert Matsabisa, the panel’s chairman.

“The onset of Covid-19, like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, has highlighted the need for strengthened health systems and accelerated research and development programmes, including on traditional medicines,” the WHO’s Dr Prosper Tumusiime said in the statement.

In April, Madagascar’s President Andry Rajoelina launched Covid-Organics to great fanfare, saying it was a prevention and remedy. It had been tested on 20 people over a period of three weeks.

Mr Rajoelina stands by the herbal concoction, despite the Indian Ocean Island having had 15,925 coronavirus infections and 216 Covid-19 deaths.

The drink, which has also been sent to dozens of African countries, is produced by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research from the artemisia plant – the source of an ingredient used in a malaria treatment – and other Malagasy plants.

Dr Tumusiime said that via the WHO’s African Vaccine Regulatory Forum, there was now a way for clinical trials of medicines in the region to be assessed and approved in fewer than 60 days.

-Observer

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/who-approves-testing-of-african-herbal-medicine-for-covid-19/

The Central Bank of Nigeria has opted to cut interest rates as strategy to prevent threat of recession, raising concerns that the move may be insufficient to boost growth in Africa’s largest economy.

Of the 10 members of the monetary policy committee who attended its meeting, six voted to lower the rate to 11.5% from 12.5%, Governor Godwin Emefiele said at a briefing in the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday. That’s the second cut this year and came even as inflation has been above target since 2015. All six economists in a Bloomberg survey expected the rate to remain unchanged.

“Any policy that focuses on stimulating credit growth alone without a major revamp of the structural bottlenecks in the economy will do little to provide cheaper credit” to boost output, said Oluwasegun Akinwale, a research officer at Nova Merchant Bank Ltd.

What Bloomberg’s Economist Says

“The rate cut is unlikely to achieve the desired effect. What is more likely in our view is for growth to continue to be undermined by ongoing currency restrictions, and for inflation to continue to accelerate. This will intensify the current dilemma facing the monetary policy committee and weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy even further as the central bank adopts an ever-widening array of distortionary tools that pull in different directions in order to reconcile these competing objectives. This includes the ‘bold’ steps Emefiele to intends to take to stabilize the exchange rate.”

–Boingotlo Gasealahwe, Africa economist

Over the past year, the central bank has introduced measures such as a moratorium on loan-interest payments, reducing lending rates for critical sectors and increasing the minimum loan-to-deposit ratio for banks in an effort to stimulate the economy. These interventions have been paying off and will continue, Emefiele said. While the central bank targets inflation in a band of 6% to 9% and is concerned about the uptick in the number, it was driven by structural factors and not monetary policy, he said.

The MPC also adjusted the asymmetric corridor, which means the cost at which lenders borrow was lowered to 100 basis points above the monetary policy rate and the return their deposits reduced to 700 basis points below the benchmark. That’s to push commercial banks to increase lending. The move shows even deeper easing than could have been expected, according to Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank.

“The bigger issue surrounds the more immediate drivers of inflation – foreign-exchange bottlenecks that might complicate any effective harmonization plans,” Khan said in an emailed note. “The action of easing policy while inflation is still accelerating, sends, at best, a mixed message around Nigeria’s willingness to re-open the foreign-exchange market.”

The lockdown of major cities to curb the spread of the coronavirus pushed up food prices faster and those remain under pressure due to floods, a weaker naira and clashes between herders and farmers. President Muhammadu Buhari’s order to ban access to foreign currency for food and fertilizer imports could also stoke inflation as businesses will look to the parallel market for dollars. The government’s move to end fuel subsidies and raise electricity tariffs will add to consumers’ costs.

The drop in the production and price of oil, Nigeria’s biggest source of foreign exchange, added to a shortage of dollars and the steepest drop in gross domestic product in at least 10 years.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/cbn-cuts-interest-rates-to-word-off-looming-recession/

By Emeka Nze

Determined to encourage the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) in place of petrol to power vehicles, the federal government has introduced a palliative, offering a 250 billion naira ($648 million) stimulus package under a National Gas Expansion Programme.

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), investors can access the fund, which has a maximum tenor of 10 years, at interest rates capped at 5% until the end of February next year, and then 9% afterward.

The new plan involves getting thousands of buses and trucks to run on the cleaner fuel by collaborating with investors to build the required infrastructure, such as pipelines and refueling stations, on major highways across the country of more than 200 million people.

Companies such as Nipco Plc, a fuel retailer, and Sagas Energy Ltd., a gas distributor, are among participants already signed up, according to the ministry.

Nigeria is counting on gas-powered vehicles to help it reduce reliance on gasoline and improve its climate credentials while easing the pangs of ending decades of an expensive fuel-subsidy regime.

Energy prices have shot up sharply after the government ended subsidies and the country’s labor unions are threatening a general strike on Sept. 28. After a 60% loss of revenues due to the plunge in oil prices, President Muhammadu Buhari is insisting the decision cannot be reversed.

With proven reserves of more than 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Nigeria currently produces about 8 billion cubic feet daily, most of which goes in liquefied natural gas exports. Local consumption is still largely limited by lack of distribution facilities, and a lot of the country’s gas is simply burned off or pumped back into oil wells.

Nipco has fitted more than 5,000 vehicles with conversion kits that allows them to run on natural gas in and around the southern city of Benin and now eyes the opportunities presented by the millions of cars on the country’s roads.

“CNG, unit for unit, costs less than even the subsidized gasoline,” said Lawal. “We believe that when an alternative is given to Nigerians, they will get used to it.”

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/nigeria-launches-fund-to-boost-gas-powered-vehicles/

Ghana’s economy contracted in the second quarter for the first time in four years as lockdown restrictions to curb the coronavirus stalled activity and oil prices slumped.

Gross domestic product shrank 3.2% in the three months through June from a year earlier, Samuel Kobina Annim, government statistician, said Wednesday in the capital, Accra. That compares with growth of 4.9% in the first quarter. The median of six economists’ estimate in a Bloomberg survey was for a contraction of 3.8%.

The West African economy is one of less than 20 in sub-Saharan Africa that are still projected to expand this year, albeit at the slowest pace in almost four decades. While lockdown restrictions were eased in May, many manufacturing companies remained closed, Annim said. With borders that were only opened recently, the hotels industry contracted by 79.4%, he said.

Quarter-on-quarter GDP shrank by 0.8%. The second-quarter data may put the government’s projection of 0.9% growth at risk.

“The economic gains that were made in the last couple of years have been eroded and no one knows when the pandemic is going to end,” Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako, a senior lecturer in economics at the University of Ghana Business School, said by phone before the release of the data.

The last time quarterly GDP in Africa’s biggest gold producer contracted was in 2016 ahead of a vote in which the opposition defeated the incumbent. The nation heads to the polls again in December and the economy will be a key factor as President Nana Akufo-Addo goes up against his predecessor John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress to renew his mandate.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/recession-closing-in-on-ghana-as-economy-shrinks/

By Emeka Nze

Government may have concluded plans to regulate trade in digital currencies in Nigeria following growing apprehension.

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission said it will regulate trade in digital currencies to provide protection for investors and to ensure that transactions are transparent.

“The general objective of regulation is not to hinder technology or stifle innovation, but to create standards that encourage ethical practices,” the Abuja-based regulator said Monday in an emailed statement. The agency said it’s obliged to regulate “when the character of the investments qualifies as securities transactions.”

The authorities in the West African nation had in the past declined to recognize digital currencies as legal tender, with Central Bank of Nigeria saying in 2018 that crypto-currencies including Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Onecoin, weren’t regarded as money.

SEC, as the regulator is known, said it views them as exchangeable securities. “Issuers or sponsors of virtual digital assets shall be guided by the commission’s regulation,” it said in the statement.

“Crypto transactions are already happening and the earlier it is regulated, the less havoc on the economy,” Ayodeji Ebo, managing director at Afrinvest securities in Lagos said by phone. “it’s another way to provide alternative assets to investors.”

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/trade-in-crypto-currency-others-now-to-be-regulated-in-nigeria/

By Timothy Oyomare

The Police has arrested a 24-year-old woman on allegations of defiling five boys in Masindi, a town in the Western Region of Uganda.

The woman who is identified as Scovia Nyamusana, a resident of Kamurasi cell, Nyangahya division in Masindi district was arrested Friday on allegations of defiling the juveniles aged between 8 and 11 years, also residents of the same area.

Julius Hakiza, the Albertine region spokesperson says the suspect locked the five boys in her room on Wednesday afternoon before she defiled them after she promised to give them money.

According to Hakiza, the victims were rescued by neighbours who alerted area local leaders that Nyamusana had locked her self in a room together with the five boys.

The local council authorities led by the defense secretary Haruna Mukasa, rushed to the house where the children had been locked up by the woman.

Hakiza says Nyamusana was found red-handed performing the dubious act with the young children. She was immediately arrested and whisked to Masindi Central police station where she is currently being detained.

The five boys have been taken for medical examination to ascertain whether they have been infected with any sexually transmitted diseases. Hakiza says the woman will be charged with aggravated defilement once police investigations are complete.

-Observer

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/entertainment/woman-rapes-5-boys-in-uganda/

By Emeka Nze

Eunomix Business & Economics Limited, a group of socio-economic advisors based in South Africa and Mauritius, has said that South Africa faces a precipitous economic and political collapse by 2030 unless it changes its economic model and implements growth-friendly policies.

Using a range of measures, the Johannesburg-based political and economic risk consultancy forecasts the country will rank near the bottom of a table of more than 180 countries in terms of security, similar to Nigeria and Ukraine, and have prosperity akin to Bangladesh or Ivory Coast. That’s a significant decline from its current position, though it should fare better on governance and welfare measures.

“Bar a meaningful change of trajectory, South Africa will be a failed state by 2030,” Eunomix said in a report.

The consultancy blames a structure created during the White-minority apartheid era that was designed to exclude the Black majority, creating one of the world’s most unequal societies. Since the advent of democracy in 1994, the ruling African National Congress perpetuated that situation by rejecting job-intensive growth policies and instead raising wages and subsidizing the poor through welfare, Eunomix said.

While less than a quarter of the population is in work, South Africa’s wage bill as a percentage of gross domestic product significantly exceeds that of countries such as India, Thailand and the Philippines.

‘Dual Track’

Eunomix’s recommendation for South Africa’s government is to adopt a “dual-track” strategy of developing and maintaining high levels of social support and paying for it by adopting an aggressive special economic zone policy, which boosts growth and employment, albeit at lower wages.

The ANC’s strategy is “a dichotomy born of apartheid, resistance and crystallized by ideological puritanism and entrenched interests,” the consultancy said. “The country should not choose between imagined opposites. It should adopt a dual-track approach that reconciles them.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa is “very clear” about the need for inclusive growth that addresses inequality, unemployment and poverty, his spokesman Tyrone Seale said by phone on Wednesday.

“Government, business, labor and communities are currently working on an economic recovery plan,” he said. “As South Africa we are clear about our plan to reboot the economy and the need to involve all South Africans.”

Former President Jacob Zuma ushered in a decade of low growth when he focused on increasing the role of the state, instead of supporting a private-sector led recovery after the global economic crisis of 2008, Eunomix said. Prolonged policy uncertainty in areas ranging from mining to telecommunications compounded the slowdown.

The economic impact of recurrent power cuts, rising unemployment and the loss of the last investment-grade rating on South Africa’s debt have only been exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak.

“The pandemic is the last nail in the coffin of strategic fiasco,” Eunomix said. “The economy is unsustainably narrow and shallow. It rests on a small and declining working population burdened by very high debt and taxes.”

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/south-african-economy-risks-collapse-sinks-into-failed-state/

By Emeka Nze

Osama Bin Laden’s niece, 33, has reiterated her support for Trump in an open letter published on her personal website this week, where she also lamented the violence and destruction on the streets of America this summer.

And with the upcoming U.S. presidential election, bin Ladin says Trump is the only candidate who will protect America.

“I have been a supporter of President Trump since he announced he was running in the early days in 2015,” she told the paper. “I have watched from afar and I admire this man’s resolve. He must be re-elected … It’s vital for the future of not only America, but Western civilization as a whole.”

Despite being the niece of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, the 33-year-old is warning America will not be safe if they elect Joe Biden as their next leader.

“ISIS proliferated under the Obama/Biden administration, leading to them coming to Europe,” she told the New York Post recently. “Trump has shown he protects America and us by extension from foreign threats by obliterating terrorists at the root and before they get a chance to strike.”

Bin Ladin, who uses an alternate spelling of her family name, was born in Switzerland to a Swiss mother and Saudi father but considers herself “an American at heart.”

She told the Post she grew up idolizing American values, and had a U.S. flag draped in her childhood bedroom. She dreams of taking an RV trip across America.

-Torontosun

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/osama-bin-ladens-sister-favours-trump-says-america-not-safe-under-biden/

A gunman who killed four family members in their Oshawa home and wounded a fifth before taking his own life has been identified as the brother of the woman who survived the bloodbath. Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada.

Durham Regional Police released a statement Friday evening revealing that a pickup truck towed from the scene on Parklane Ave., near Harmony Rd. N. and King St. E., was registered to Mitchell Lapa — a Winnipeg man who a Sun source identified as the brother of surviving victim Loretta Traynor.

“Lapa was the sole shooter in this incident and he died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” police said, adding the 48-year-old “relative of the family” was “an uninvited person to the home.”

While police did not immediately identify the four victims who were killed, those who know the family believe they include Traynor’s husband and three of the couple’s children.

Durham Regional Police remove a body from a house on Parklane Ave. in Oshawa where five people were found shot to death on Friday, Sept. 4, 2020.

Neighbours on the quiet street awoke to the sound of gunfire coming from 837 Parklane Ave. around 1:20 a.m. Friday. Carol Gibson, who lives a few doors down from the home, told the Sun she heard several gunshots. “The first shot woke me up, and then I heard about four or five more after that,” she said. “Then a woman screamed and there were two shots after that.”

Const. George Tudos said responding officers arrived to a ‘chaotic scene’ of screaming and gunfire coming from the home. “It wasn’t until our tactical support team attended, they were able to safely enter the residence, and that’s when they made that grisly discovery of five deceased parties,” he said.

Inside, emergency crews found the bodies of one female and four males — two of whom were under the age of 18 — along with a woman suffering undetermined injuries. Tudor said all of the deceased are family members.

Neighbours told the Sun the home is owned by Christopher and Loretta Traynor — the latter being the woman found injured inside the home.

Neighbours told the Sun the home is owned by Christopher and Loretta Traynor — the latter being the woman found injured inside the home.

Christopher Traynor is a teacher at Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic Secondary School in Oshawa, they say. And Loretta Traynor is a teacher at St.Theresa Catholic School in Whitby.

A spokesman for the Durham District Catholic School Board would not comment while awaiting police to identify the victims but told the Sun, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who are impacted by this tragedy.”

Around 3:40 p.m., police cleared the street of both media and onlookers after two ‘suspicious devices’ were found as coroners were moving the alleged shooter’s body.

Michelle, who lives across the street and was also awakened by the gunfire, described seeing a ‘suspicious-looking’ white Ford quad-cab pickup truck with Manitoba licence plates haphazardly parked and facing the wrong way in front of the home.

“They were a great family,” she said of the Traynors, her voice breaking off into sobs. “Very good, very good.”

Mourners outside a home on Parklane Ave. in Oshawa where four people were murdered and a fifth injured in a shooting on Friday, September 4, 2020. PHOTO BY JACK BOLAND /Toronto Sun

Clifford Chow, who has lived on Parklane Ave. for over 50 years, said you couldn’t ask for better neigbours. “They were kind, generous, well educated,” he said. “This is a quiet neighbourhood, and I’ve lived here since this was a dirt road.”

The family, neighbours say, had lived in the home for over 20 years.

Throughout the day, friends and family members came by the scene to drop off flowers and express their sorrow over the tragedy.

-Torontosun

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/4-killed-1-wounded-in-canada-as-gunman-kills-self/

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo says Nigerians living in Ghana are safe and can continue to live, work and trade in the country peacefully.

Nigerian residents in the country have, for the past few months, complained over attacks on their businesses by the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA).

There have been reports of Nigerian businesses being forced to shut down on the basis that their presence in Ghana is “illegal”.

About three months ago, some Ghanaians invaded the diplomatic premises of the Nigerian High Commission in Accra and demolished buildings with bulldozers.

Despite these developments, President Akufo-Addo, in a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nigeria, Femi Gbajabiamila at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday, said Nigerian residents in Ghana are safe.

He said many Nigerians had lived in Ghana for years while several others had intermarried Ghanaians and were raising their families in Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo said Ghana and Nigeria had enjoyed years of cordial relationship and, therefore, stressed the need for residents from both countries to live and work freely without any inhibitions.

The President suggested the establishment of a joint ministerial committee from both countries to oversee trade and investment activities and protect Nigerian businesses in Ghana and vice-versa.

He said the joint ministerial committee would shepherd Ghana Nigeria trade issues and report to the presidents of both countries anytime issues came up.

President Akufo-Addo welcomed a call by the Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives to take a second look at the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Act which prevents foreigners from engaging in certain trade activities.

He assured that the Ghanaian government would continue to hold discussions with their Nigerian counterparts on how businesses from their countries could operate in each other’s countries peacefully.

He stressed the need for both Ghanaians and Nigerians to continue to live together, adding that “the brotherliness must continue”.

Mr Gbajabiamila, on his part, appealed to the government to consider the possibility of amending the GIPC Act to protect the interest of Nigerians doing genuine business in Ghana.

He said if that was not possible, the government should consider a way to “reduce the pain and difficulties” Nigerian businesses face in Ghana.

The Nigerian Speaker further suggested the establishment of a Ghana Nigeria Business Council with legislative backing from both countries to protect trade and investments in each other’s countries.

– Ghanaiantimes

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/politics/ghanaian-president-says-nigerians-are-safe-and-can-live-work-and-trade-in-ghana/

Skip kissing, avoid face-to-face closeness, wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose, and monitor yourself and your partner for symptoms ahead of any sexual activity with someone outside of your household or close-contacts bubble, Dr. Theresa Tam said Wednesday.

Skip kissing and consider wearing a mask when having sex with a new partner to protect yourself from catching the coronavirus, Canada’s chief public health officer said on Wednesday, adding that going solo remains the lowest-risk sexual option in a pandemic.

Dr. Theresa Tam said in a statement there is little chance of catching COVID-19 from semen or vaginal fluid, but sexual activity with someone new does increase the risk of contracting the virus, particularly if there is close contact like kissing.

“Like other activities during COVID-19 that involve physical closeness, there are some things you can do to minimize the risk of getting infected and spreading the virus,” she said.

Skip kissing, avoid face-to-face closeness, wear a mask that covers your mouth and nose, and monitor yourself and your partner for symptoms ahead of any sexual activity, Tam said.

“The lowest-risk sexual activity during COVID-19 involves yourself alone,” she added.

Sexual health is an important part of overall health, Tam said, and by taking precautions, “Canadians can find ways to enjoy physical intimacy while safeguarding the progress we have all made containing COVID-19.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Canada had 129,705 confirmed and presumptive coronavirus cases. Provinces and territories listed 114,842 of those as recovered or resolved.

-CBC

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/entertainment/wear-a-mask-before-having-sex-renowned-doctor-warns/

By Gbenga Adedayo

Determined to join forces with government to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) currently ravaging the world, the Rotary Club of Ikoyi has donated a giant handwashing machine to Sura Market in Lagos Island. The event took place Thursday, August 31, 2020.

Sura Market is one of the biggest and busiest market in the southern part of Nigeria, serving Lagos Island and its environs, and hosting thousands of buyers and sellers on a daily basis with high vulnerability.

Speaking at the event, the President of the Club, Rotarian Dike Obih, who led other members of the club to the market, venue of the handover, said that Rotary was concerned with the risk of exposure at the market, and resolved to support the process that would lead to elimination of COVID-19 in line with Rotary’s objective of service to humanity.

“We are presenting this piece of equipment to you to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus among you, the traders in this market”, he said.

The traders who were so elated, expressed gratitude to the Rotary Club of Ikoyi for their kind heartedness in remembering and equipping them against the coronavirus through the donation of the handwashing machine which they promised to utilize and maintain.

The Secretary of the Sura Market Traders Association, Mr. Ezekiel, who spoke on behalf of the traders, prayed for the Club, and said “On behalf of the Iyaloja and the Executive of Sura Market, we say a big thank you and your team. As the current President of Rotary Club Ikoyi, God will add honor and value to your tenure, and you will be recognised among achievers in this nation and the rest of the world, in Jesus Mighty Name, Amen”.

Rotary members believe in shared responsibility at taking action against world’s most persistent issues particularly in promoting peace, fighting disease, including COVID-19, providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, saving mothers and children, supporting education and growing local economies.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/covid-19-rotary-club-of-ikoyi-donates-handwashing-machine-to-sura-market/

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has declared Saturday, August 29, 2020 a national day for prayer following a dramatic rise in recent days of Covid-19 cases.

The country recorded its highest single-day infections of 308 last Saturday.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Health reported 155 people had tested positive, minutes before Mr Museveni announced a public holiday calling on Ugandans to pray “for God to deliver” the country from the pandemic.

On his official Twitter handle, Mr Museveni said he arrived at the decision after an unnamed individual approached him with a vision from God with instructions that he organises national prayers.

“A certain Ugandan came to me and told me that God had told him in a vision that I should organise national prayers, scientifically organised, for God to deliver us from Covid-19,” Mr Museveni said.

“Therefore, by the powers given to the President of Uganda by Section 2(2) of the Public Holidays Act, I declare the 29th of August 2020, a day of National Prayers and a Public Holiday. Stay in your houses or compounds and pray,” he added.

Uganda has cumulative confirmed coronavirus cases of 2,679 as at Thursday with two deaths bringing the total of fatalities to 28. Those who have recovered are 1,268, according to the Health ministry.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/uganda-turns-to-god-declares-public-holiday-to-pray-against-coronavirus/

Nigeria’s all-out effort to defend its currency by targeting importers and exporters with tougher regulations risks pushing more currency traders to the black market and more companies into distress.

As a scarcity of foreign-exchange worsens in Africa’s largest economy, the central bank on Tuesday ordered banks to report exporters that fail to repatriate income earned abroad. The directive came only a day after the regulator banned importers from using external agents to pay for goods, a bid to tighten oversight of payments made outside the nation’s borders.

The threat of punishment for non-compliance, including banning exporters from accessing dollars, won’t work said Bamidele Ayemibo, the lead consultant at 3T Impex Trade Academy in Lagos, an adviser on exports and imports. Exports are secured at the parallel-market rate, while the central bank wants to force firms to repatriate foreign currency at the much stronger official rate for the naira.

Nigerian Central Bank Targets Exporters Failing to Remit Dollars

“If they sanction them, then they would just kill exports completely,” he said. “The central bank should do what it needs to do to encourage exporters to repatriate — first by allowing market forces to determine the price at which they sell — and then sanctioning those who don’t repatriate after.”

Nigeria Bans Firms From Buying Imported Goods Via Third Parties

Importers are also likely to balk. Multinationals and large local manufacturers have big foreign-exchange needs and use agents in Europe or Asia to purchase raw material, machinery and equipment on their behalf. The central bank is also introducing a process to verify prices of items being imported, which could cause delays.

‘Extremely Stressful’

In the absence of exceptions for key importers, the naira will probably weaken further in the parallel market, fueling “never-ending speculative attacks on the local unit,” United Capital Plc said in a note.

A spokesman for the central bank didn’t immediately answer a text message to his mobile phone.

The central bank’s clamp down on third-party importers could cause local companies to default on previously agreed obligations, which will spillover into supply chain and output disruptions, causing productivity, revenue and employment losses, the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria said in an emailed statement.

“Given the prevailing extremely stressful operating environment our fragile manufacturing sector is contending with, the implementation of this new directive is like hammering the last nail in the coffin of many of our ailing members,” the association said.

Speculative Drive

Nigerian naira official rate trades 26% weaker to parallel market

The naira has been devalued twice this year after the drop in the price of oil, the country’s main foreign-exchange earner. The central bank stopped regular interventions in the currency market in March, leaving international investors trapped in the local market.

The parallel dollar-market rate, which the central bank says is illegal, is near a two-year high of 477 naira.

Bond Buyers Stranded in Nigeria Face Prospect of 100% Loss

Lenders including Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Zenith Bank Plc have also cut the amount of foreign currency customers can spend abroad. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has stopped cash withdrawals from dollars accounts unless physical dollars have been deposited.

Facing Bankruptcies

The currency shortage is now playing out in another part of the market. Licensed bureau de change operators are complaining they’re on the brink of collapse after the central bank stopped making foreign-exchange sales to them, while illegal money changers are thriving.

“People cannot pay for offices, staff, not even regulatory fees or taxes,” said Aminu Gwadebe, the president of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators, which has about 5,000 members. “We don’t have any sources, all our sources are shut down. We are the most vulnerable.”

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/cbns-new-fx-policy-triggers-surge-in-black-market-patronage/

York Regional Police in Canada have commenced investigation into what they described as a “hate-motivated incident” in Richmond Hill after anti-Black drawings was found.

Officers were called to Lacona Cres., near Bayview Ave. and Old Colony Rd., on Wednesday after 9 a.m. for a report of racist graffiti. When they arrived, they found “an anti-Black message had been spray-painted on a sidewalk.”

The town has since removed the graffiti.

“York Regional Police does not tolerate hate crime in any form,” the service said in a statement.

“Those who victimize individuals based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Investigators from the YRP’s Hate Crime Unit and #2 District Criminal Investigations Bureau are looking to speak with witnesses or anyone with CCTV footage.

-Torontosun

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/racism-as-canada-police-launch-manhunt-for-anti-black-movement/

The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu has called for a concerted effort towards diversifying the country’s export base through the promotion of non-oil exports. He made the call during a Webinar themed “Prospects of Non-Oil Export During and Post COVID-19” organized by the bank on Wednesday, August 26, 2020.

According to him, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted the demand for oil and, by extension, the price of crude oil in the international commodities market has further exposed Nigeria’s over-dependency on crude oil earnings and its susceptibility to oil-related shocks. He added that the events of the last couple of months have also highlighted the limited range of the country’s value-added products exported to foreign markets.

He noted further that boosting non-oil export is imperative in view of the opportunities that exist in the broader contexts of ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) which seeks to create a continent-wide market of 1.2 billion people with combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion and about $4 trillion in consumer and business spending.

Whilst commending the efforts of the government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to deepen the non-oil export business in the country, Onyeagwu urged players in the non-oil export value-chain including exporters and financial institutions to play their part in the drive towards expanding the nation’s non-oil export base.

Delivering the keynote address, the Director of Trade & Exchange, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. (Mrs) Ozoemena Nnaji, who commended Zenith Bank for organizing the webinar at a time like this, observed that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for the country, as it has once again exposed the over-dependence of the Nigerian economy on one product. She therefore called for a deeper policy look at the non-oil sector to find ways of genuinely improving the quality and quantity of our non-oil export goods.

Also speaking at the Webinar, the Chief Executive/Executive Director of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr. Olusegun Awolowo commended the efforts of Zenith bank in promoting non-oil export business in Nigeria, describing the bank as ‘the Export Trade Bank of Nigeria’. Speaking on the topic “Repositioning Non-oil export as a Leading Revenue Earner: Government Plans and Programmes”, Awolowo noted that the crash in oil prices following the COVID-19 pandemic and OPEC’s price war with Russia reinforced what everyone already knows – the mono-product economy of the country is not sustainable, calling for a buy-in into the Zero oil policy of NEPC.

Zenith Bank remains committed to the promotion of the non-oil export sector in Nigeria by identifying emerging opportunities which help in stimulating non-oil exports and developing robust financial products and incentives for operators in the sector. The bank launched the Non-Oil Export Seminar in 2017 as an initiative to deepen the discourse on promoting non-oil export business in Nigeria.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/zenith-bank-appeals-for-expansion-of-non-oil-exports/

West African leaders arrived in Mali Saturday in a bid to convince the military junta to reverse a coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

“We arrived in Bamako this afternoon to continue with (our) mediation and peace talks towards resolving Mali’s political crisis and restoring normalcy in this beautiful West African country,” former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who’s leading the Economic Community of West African States delegation, said in a tweet Saturday.

Ecowas has called for Keita to be reinstated. The delegation’s goal is to make the junta “understand that our sub-region no longer accepts the forceful takeover of power,” Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, the current head of the leadership group, said Thursday after a meeting of regional heads of state.

Keita, 75, dissolved his government and resigned Tuesday under pressure from soldiers who detained him hours after they staged a mutiny at an army barracks on the outskirts of the capital, Bamako. Previous mediation efforts by Ecowas failed to resolve the impasse between Keita’s government and a popular protest movement that had demanded he step down before he was eventually seized by soldiers.

Keita remains in captivity with top members of his cabinet.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/ecowas-leaders-storm-mali-to-push-for-presidents-reinstatement/

General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM), Dr. Daniel Kolawole Olukoya, has denied involvement in any fraudulent activities as being portrayed in some sections of the media, which he accused of being bent on churning out malicious stories against him and the church.

Defending Dr. Olukoya, in a statement, his media aide, Mr. Collins Edomaruse, said the seven allegations laid against the general Overseer and the MFM were without foundation, but intent to damage his reputation and destroy the global image of the church.

Edomaruse also said “It has become pertinent for the purpose of clarity to respond to the false allegations being peddled against the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries and our General Overseer – Dr. D. K. Olukoya in the social media particularly sponsored by SaharaReporters. These allegations are seven (7) in number namely:

No. 1 That Dr. Olukoya falsely claimed residence of US city of Maryland.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Dr. Olukoya is a public figure nationally and internationally. His domicile is therefore a fact of public knowledge. The true position is that the Pastor who wanted to register MFM in Maryland inserted Dr. Olukoya’s name without prior consultation with or knowledge of the G.O because he believed that Dr. Olukoya should be involved but after he consulted a lawyer and received advice that a person’s name cannot be on the incorporation documents unless he is resident in Maryland, that registration was put in abeyance and allowed to lapse. The Pastor is still alive and all the evidence are there for all to see at the Company Registry in Maryland.

No. 2 Allegation is that Dr. Olukoya Illegally Imported books into the United States and evaded payment of Customs duties on those books.

This is also untrue. Dr. Olukoya’s books are sold on Amazon. It is fool hardy for anyone to suggest that he brought in his books to US illegally when he can and has been doing so legally. This false allegation was pioneered by a former Pastor of MFM who tried to steal MFM Branch in Maryland. He conceived this lie as his defence to a civil Suit the Church brought against him in the County Court in Maryland. This concocted lie could best be described as the wild thrashings of a drowning man intent on bringing everybody down with him. However, in defence of this allegation, MFM brought its book keeper to testify in court who produced all the receipts of payment and customs documents and, in the end, the Judge not only thrashed the wild allegation but gave judgement in favour of MFM.

No. 3 is the allegation that the Trustees in the UK were suspended.

This is completely false. They were never suspended. They are still in charge of the Church even up till now.

No. 4 is the allegation of fraud against the Trustees of MFM UK.

The trustees were never indicted. We can authoritatively say that no Trustee of MFM-UK has ever committed fraud.

No. 5 is the allegation that Dr. Olukoya connived with someone to steal 150,000 pounds.

This is a complete fabrication from the fevered minds of the defamers. Fortunately, all the people that took money illegally are still alive. The genesis of this allegation is that the lease of one of our branches in London contained a clause which stipulated that any party who broke the Lease for any reason before its expiration would pay a penalty of 150,000 British Pounds to the other party. It happened that the owner of the property broke the lease and sold the property to a third party which necessitated the Church relocating from the building. The property owners honoured their obligation and paid the penalty sum of 150,000 pound which the Pastor of that branch somehow found a way of paying it into his personal account without informing the Headquarters and conspired with the external auditors to shield that income from discovery. It was much later that a member of that branch brought to the attention of Headquarters that such amount of money had been received by the Pastor.

Headquarters immediately set up a panel to investigate the incident and give fair hearing to the Pastor concerned. He attended the sitting of the panel and unequivocally admitted the theft. The Panel directed him to refund the money immediately. Upon receipt of the report of the Panel, the General Overseer issued the Pastor an ultimatum in writing to pay back the money within forty-eight (48) hours whereupon he promised to re-mortgage his house in London to comply. It was later brought to the attention of Dr. Olukoya that this ultimatum had not been complied with by the Pastor who, on his own, began to repay the money by instalments.

From the above narration, it is crystal clear to any unbiased mind that the money was stolen long before the Headquarters and Dr. Olukoya got to hear and that when they did, appropriate internal machineries were promptly put in place to investigate and recover it.

The publication on the Charity Commission’s website which Sahara Reporters quoted out of context does not say or infer that Dr. Olukoya as Lead Trustee of the Church connived at the losses. It simply states, albeit on a false factual basis, that Dr. Olukoya agreed with and permitted the Pastor to repay the money by instalments. The question that flow from Sahara Reporter’s misconception and misrepresentation are:

Since the synonyms of connive are: plot, scheme, conspire, plan, hatch up, how can anybody do any of these in respect of an event that had already transpired without his knowledge?
Would a person who connived at an act set up a Panel to probe that act and eventually set an ultimatum for the return of the stolen money?
Suffice to say, at this point, that Dr. Olukoya has in letters dated 15th and 16 August 2019 writen to the Charity Commission to challenge the non-factual nature of the report written about him on their website. The Commission in a terse reply dated August 20th 2019 indicated that it would address that complaint.

No. 6 is the allegation that MFM and Dr. Olukoya are land grabbers and were set to lose the MFM Prayer City land.

Besides the fact that MFM has a Certificate of Occupancy, the falsehood of this allegation has been judicially determined by the fact that the lawyer who granted the interview from which Sahara Reporters made the false publication, as usual without independent research, has been damnified in damages for libel in the judgment of a High Court.

No. 7 is the publication by Sahara Reporters that its Publisher Omoyele Sowore and his crew were beaten up and detained by MFM at its Prayer City.

The necessity to re-address this false allegation is underscored by the fact that the incident leading up to it is the foundation of Sowore’s deep seated hatred for MFM and Dr Olukoya and the reason for his sustained rancid and venomous attacks on our Church and General Overseer.

On the Cross-over service held at the MFM Prayer City in the night of December 2012 to the morning of January 2013, Sowore and his Crew, without being previously accredited like all other journalist and newsmen covering the event, gate-crashed and started filming and advancing towards the podium where Dr. Olukoya had already started preaching. Recall that this was a period when terrorist attacks and bomb blasts in places of worship were rampant and security was beefed up in such locations with large presence of uniformed and plain clothed Policemen, DSS operatives, Bomb detection Squads and other security operatives.

These Security operatives stopped Sowore and his crew from advancing further towards the podium, took them out for questioning and after they identified themselves they were advised to restrict themselves to the area reserved for pressmen but Sowore in his conceited perception of himself as having a larger than life image and reputation took offence at the suggestion and left with his crew only to subsequently concoct and publish those lies; and has not relented since then.

Our members and friends are advised to just ignore these false and malicious publications for what they are.

As for those who have made it their preoccupation and livelihood to pour filth on our Church and General Overseer, we love you as God’s creation and will continue to pray that you cease from your steady decline into perdition. We also commend to you the words of the scriptures in Isaiah 33:1 – “Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee,” KJV.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/mfm-general-overseer-clarifies-false-allegation-on-uk-church/

South Sudan has run out of foreign exchange reserves as oil revenues have plummeted, and it cannot stop its currency from sliding, a central bank official said.

Daniel Kech Pouch, the bank’s deputy governor, said late Wednesday that the pound was depreciating sharply and there was little that monetary advisers could do to arrest its fall.

“(It) is difficult for us now at this moment to stop this rapid exchange rate (decline) because we don’t have the reserve for us to intervene in the market,” he told reporters.

-theeastafrican

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/south-sudan-economy-risks-collapse-as-foreign-reserve-dries-up/

Citigroup Incorporation has appointed Ireti Samuel-Ogbu as its Nigerian country officer, the first time a woman has been appointed to the lender’s top post after 36 years of operating in Africa’s largest economy.

Samuel-Ogbu, who starts on Sept. 1, replaces Akin Dawodu, who was appointed as cluster head for sub-Saharan Africa in November, Citigroup’s Nigerian unit said in an email.

For the past five years, she has served as managing director of payments and receivables, treasury and trade solutions for Europe, Middle East and Africa at the lender’s office in London, according to her LinkedIn profile. She will relocate to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub to take on her new role and will report to Dawodu.

Samuel-Ogbu takes over Citigroup’s Nigerian office at a time when the West Africa nation’s banking industry is struggling with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, a slump in oil prices and a dollar scarcity that is choking the economy and hampering businesses.

The new country officer has a “talented and experienced team in Nigeria,” and will assist institutional clients in the country by plugging into Citigroup’s regional and global reach, the company said. Citigroup has offices in 11 countries on the continent.

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/news/citibank-appoints-ireti-samuel-ogbu-as-head-of-nigerian-operations/

Prudential Zenith Life Insurance has donated the sum of One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$100,000) to Slum2School Africa to help combat the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in disadvantaged communities in Nigeria. The donation was made through a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Fund from the Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm of Prudential Plc in Asia and Africa.

Slum2School Africa is a leading volunteer-driven developmental organisation, transforming society by empowering underprivileged children in slums and remote communities with quality education, entrepreneurial skills and psychosocial support to enable them to realise their full potential and become social reformers.

Speaking during the presentation of the cheque, the Managing Director/CEO, Prudential Zenith Life Insurance Limited, Mr. Chuks Igumbor said that: “Our contribution to Slum2School’s activities demonstrates our corporate social responsibility action plan which is targeted towards communities most in need of the support we provide.” He noted further that “the Coronavirus pandemic has impacted all aspects of our lives including the education sector, with a steep widening of education inequality as children and youths from underprivileged communities are unable to access the learning materials that students from affluent backgrounds are able to access. The strategic partnership between Prudential Zenith Life and Slum2School, therefore, aims to bridge this gap and engage learners from Nursery to Senior Secondary School across twenty slums and communities in Lagos State.”

The $100,000 donation will be used to procure 300 tablets with internet connections, 34 laptops for Slum2School facilitators, 34 whiteboards, markers and board eraser sets, state-of-the-art learning studio for 50-90 pupils per session, stationery for students, as well as learning programs and software. In addition to the cash donation, relief foodstuff was also provided to less privileged families within the identified communities to assist in these trying times.

Prudential Zenith Life Insurance Limited is part of Prudential Plc, one of the oldest and most strongly capitalised life insurance companies in the world. It provides a range of insurance and investment-linked savings products designed to suit corporate and individual customers’ budgets. Prudential Zenith Life seeks to remove uncertainty from life’s big events, providing customers with the freedom to confront the future with greater confidence. It is equally committed to meeting the long-term savings and protection needs of families and businesses in Nigeria. Whether someone is starting a family, saving for a child’s education or planning for old age, Prudential Zenith Life provides customers with financial peace of mind.

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/prudential-zenith-life-donates-100000-to-slum2school-against-covid-19-impact/

Looming recession and foreign-currency scarcity put Nigeria’s economy under serious jeopardy.

Banks won’t honor card payments, foreign investors can’t get their money out and manufacturers are unable to import vital raw materials as output hurtles toward a second contraction in four years.

Dependent on oil exports for half of its revenue, the Nigerian government’s coffers have emptied after crude prices plunged in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. There’s little prospect of a respite any time soon: it needs oil prices of $70 per barrel and production of 2 million barrels a day to balance its budget, but prices are hovering around $40 and OPEC curbs have restricted the nation’s output to about 1.4 million barrels a day.

The evaporation of foreign income forced the central bank to halt weekly interbank foreign-currency sales since March. Now the effects of the dollar shortage are seeping through to the economy.

“A lot of the members can’t access the amount of dollars they need from the banks,” said Eke Ubiji, executive secretary of the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises. “That is constraining business.”

The International Monetary Fund predicts Nigeria’s economy will contract by 5.4% this year, the most in four decades. The latest official job figures put the second-quarter unemployment rate at 27.1%, the highest in a decade.

Lenders including Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Nigeria’s biggest by market value, have cut the amount of foreign currency customers can spend on payment cards abroad to $100 a month from $3,000. Rules on what companies do with the dollars they receive have also been changed, said Emeka Mgbeahuru, who runs Tropitec Ltd., an importer of agricultural equipment from Italy and China with distribution links across west and central Africa.

“When you source your own dollars, they won’t let you pay in cash into your account and won’t let you transfer to your suppliers,” Mgbeahuru said by phone from the southeastern commercial hub of Onitsha.

Many banks are following a template they used when they went through a similar contraction in 2016, which was to cut customers’ foreign payments and wait for crude prices to recover before raising the limits.

Central Bank of Nigeria spokesman Isaac Okorafor didn’t respond to a call and messages seeking comment.

“The challenge with dollar liquidity is an industry-wide problem,” said Bridget Oyefeso-Odusami, a spokeswoman of Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc, which cut its customers’ card spending to $500 monthly.

The shortage of foreign currency is forcing some companies to consider closing down, said Ubiji.

“If that happens, it has a ripple effect, which is loss of jobs,” he said. “We wish the situation changes for the better.”

-Bloomberg

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/foreign-exchange-scarcity-and-looming-recession-threaten-nigerians-economy/

An estimated 13 million Africans are expected to fall below the poverty line at the end of this year in the best case scenario with 50 million at the worst as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a World Bank research on the impact of the pandemic in the continent.

The region’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth is now forecast at 3-5 per cent lower meaning the number of Africans living on less than $1.9 (Sh200) is likely to increase by 2 per centage points from the estimated 41.6 per cent at the end of 2018 to 43.9 per cent at the end of 2020.

According to the multilateral lender, this is enough to sink the continent into its first recession in 25 years.

The continent, which has made major gains in poverty reduction over the years by a slight improvement in policy decisions and governance, has seen poverty levels drop from 46.6 per cent in 2010 to 41.6 per cent in 2018. The World Bank outlook mean the gains are set to be reversed as pandemic continues to ravage the fragile and relatively poor economies.

“The swift and aggressive efforts taken by many African government to contain the disease, necessary as they are, have come at enormous economic cost,” said the World Bank in the release.

African governments were struggling to raise revenue pre-Covid-19. Tax revenues are now growing at even slower rates forcing them to bridge expenditure deficit through debts.

With the pandemic at play, measures to cushion their citizens such as cash transfers, food distribution programmes, tax reliefs and stimulus packages for sectoral supports have come at a big economic cost for governments.

And the pandemic is likely to change business models in the world. When the dust settles those who will be left standing will have to go back to the drawing board and reconfigure their models in order to survive. This includes hiring workers on contract basis, reducing non profitable ventures among other sustainable models.

-BusinessDaily

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/business-news/covid-19-over-13-million-africans-to-sink-into-extreme-poverty-says-world-bank/

Vladimir Putin was savaged by scientists today for his ‘reckless and foolish’ claim that Russia has developed the world’s first effective coronavirus vaccine.

Putin says the vaccine offers ‘sustainable immunity’ against Covid-19 and says his daughter has already been given the jab, with Russia eyeing up mass injections as soon as October – causing widespread alarm because it has not yet passed clinical trials.

One scientist blasted Putin’s move as ‘unethical’ because an ‘improperly tested vaccine’ could have ‘disastrous’ effects on public health, while others warned that there is ‘no data’ to tell whether the Russian vaccine is effective.

Another expert warned that ‘the damage from release of any vaccine that was less than safe and effective would exacerbate our current problems insurmountably’.

While small trials can show whether a vaccine is likely to be safe, the usually months-long Phase III tests which measure its effectiveness have not yet taken place, while the WHO has not yet granted approval for the jab.

Nonetheless, Russia claims that 20 countries have already ordered a billion doses of the vaccine, which has been named Sputnik V after the former Soviet space satellites.

The Kremlin and its state-controlled media have touted Russian scientists as global pioneers and turned the vaccine race into a matter of national prestige – leading to fears that safety could be compromised for the sake of Russia’s image.

Britain, the US and Canada claimed last month that Russia had tried to hack into Western vaccine research in its quest to win the race.

Vladimir Putin claims Russia has a coronavirus vaccine and says one of his daughters has already been injected – prompting widespread scepticism

Russia claims the jab sped through early trials on monkeys and humans, known as Phase I and II trials, and was safe and effective at producing antibodies against Covid-19.

But the scientists behind the vaccine have released no scientific data from the trials, meaning the results likely haven’t been scrutinised by independent experts.

The Russian jab has also not been put through rigorous Phase 3 trials, which are considered the only way to ensure vaccines are safe and actually work.

During these tests, sometimes known as efficacy trials, scientists give the vaccine to tens of thousands of people and wait to see how many become infected.

They then compare their results with volunteers who caught the infection after receiving a placebo.

Scientists say this final phase is the only way to statistically prove a vaccine prevents infection.

And because it’s a much larger testing group, the trials can also pick up subtle side effects that may only affect a small percentage of people.

These rare side effects can become dangerous when vaccines are scaled up for entire populations of tens of millions of people.

Professor Peter Openshaw, an experimental medicine expert at Imperial College London, said today: ‘It’s important to emphasise that this vaccine has not been approved or even fully tested. The Russian health authorities are discussing the process for possible WHO pre-qualification as an approved vaccine.

‘There are currently 19 vaccines that have been tested for the ability to generate antibody (Phase I), another 11 that have passed this stage and gone on to expended testing (Phase II), eight at Phase III and one vaccine approved for limited use.

‘So far, it is reported that the Russian vaccine has undergone less than two months of human testing in a total of 38 people. It appears to be at Phase I or II. According to news sources, there is a Phase III trial of 1,600 people planned. That’s not actually very large for a vaccine trial and would assume a high rate of infection in the volunteers.’

Professor Openshaw suggested that the type of vaccine the Russians have produced would be likely to cause mild side effects such as fever, headache and tiredness.

Speaking at a government meeting today, Putin claimed that the vaccine has undergone proper testing and been proven safe to use.

‘I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,’ he said. ‘The most important thing is to ensure full safety of using the vaccine and its efficiency.’

The Russian leader added that one of his two adult daughters has received two shots of the vaccine and is feeling well. ‘She has taken part in the experiment,’ Putin said.

Putin said his daughter had a temperature of 100F (38C) on the day of the first vaccine injection, which then dropped to 99F (37C) on the following day.

After the second shot she again had a slight increase in temperature, but then it was all over, Putin said.

He did not reveal whether it was his daughter Maria or Katerina who received the vaccine. However, reports in Russia said it was the younger Katerina who was inoculated.

Further reports last month claimed that some of Russia’s business and political elite had been given access to experimental vaccines as long ago as April.

The Russian president said he hoped the country would soon start mass producing the vaccine.

-Dailymail

http://www.mediaissuesng.com/health/experts-condemn-russias-claim-to-covid-19-vaccine-production/